Tali

Several members of the Clann used to play Tali frequently. I remember Aonghus being a big fan of the game years ago. The following rules for Tali were taken from Eachna's Knucklebones and Dice page. Unfortunately, she refers to a more in-depth rules page which no longer exists on the internet - but her description is good enough that I think it will suffice (see below). More information about ancient games played with Tali can be found in The Ancient Library.

Rules of Play
Within the clann, we use the Roman rules for Tali as posted at the Roman Board Games site on the Tali & Tropia page. [note: no longer live as of Jan, 2008]

A quick breakdown of these rules and our adaptions:

• Drop or toss four Tali from a moderate height over a gaming surface (table, ground, etc). Individual dice dropped "off" the table are to be re-rolled.
• There are two forms of results...named variations (Venus, Vultures, Senio, Dogs), and numerical value.
• Venus trumps all other rolls. A Venus is defined as a different number on each die (1, 3, 4, 6)
• Senio trumps all but a Venus. A Senio is defined as only one six with any other results, except additional sixes (6, x, x, x). Senios descend in precedence
• Vultures trump all but Venus or Senio. Vultures are defined as four of a kind (4, 4, 4, 4). Vultures descend in precedence from hightest (6, 6, 6 ,6) to lowest (1, 1, 1, 1). "Dogs" are four 1's, and may have a special secondary value or penalty.
• All other rolls are judged by numerical value (total of all dice when added). To break ties between these results, poker rules may take precedence (for example, pairs, three of a kind, two pair, all by highest number), or, alternate rules may be determined at the beginning of the game.

If you look at the rules on the Roman Board Games site, and the table of rolls results, you will see a conflict. The text rules state: "Numerical values did not have precedent over a Venus, the Vultures, or a Senio". The table of rolls shows the highest to lowest rolls, and does in fact seem to give precedence to numerical rolls. We choose to honor the text rules rather than the chart when we play.

For variation, we have been known to play with five Tali and use poker rules modified for the numerical variations. Some combinations do not appear (flush, straight) when you are not using standard suits or numerical ranges.